DMG Audio PitchFunk

PC, Mac/VST, AU, £65

This “modulating multi-FX monster” promises to make “the filthiest noises you’ve ever heard,” which is quite some claim when you consider the dirt that’s passed our ears over the years. It has a pitch shifter which feeds a delay and filter with feedback, while there are plenty of modulation options.

HG Fortune Ghost Machine

PC/VST, €49

It looks complicated, and it sounds pretty intense, too. Ghost Machine can’t be played like a normal synth; it’s a multipart algorithmic composing machine that sports Pad. HiSq/Bass and Drum parts. Each part has its own sequencer, and there’s also a main sequencer. The price listed above is an introductory one.

Mildon Studios SLVR Spreader

PC/VST, $14

Designed for both mixing and mastering, SLVR Spreader is a stereo widener. It uses various different technologies that, when combined, enable you to apply widening without weakening the overall sound (so we’re told). The price listed above is an introductory one.

Manx Bit 100

PC/VST, $59

The Crumar Bit One might not be the best-known synth of the 1980s, but the developers of this emulation claim that its sound is “first class”. Bit 100 promises all the best of its hardware forebear (two LFOs, a duophonic unison mode, three waveforms per oscillator) but without the unreliability and poor MIDI spec.